In my books, England has had an erratic love affair with the Tour de France. And for years, in fact, I must admit that I saw British cycling as an oddity. The sprinkling of fans that made it to France to follow the event were deeply passionate, but all too often they saw the race only through the eyes of the few British riders in the peloton.

Garmin-Sharp director Charly Wegelius—who spent part of his youth here in the Yorkshire region of northern England that is hosting the start of this year’s Tour—pretty much summed up my own view during the team’s pre-Tour press conference when he said, “When I was growing up, only eccentrics and people without cars rode bikes in England.”

And the country’s first attempt to host the Tour de France back in 1974 was tentative at best. Less than a decade after their star rider, Tom Simpson, died on the slopes of the Mont Ventoux in 1967, the Tour came to Great Britain. But the racing was reduced to circuit race around Plymouth, little more than an exhibition event won by the unheralded Dutch rider Henk Poppe.

The United Kingdom's fortunes only started to turn when, for a decade in the late 1970s and early 1980s a young generation of British riders excelled in the French amateur ranks and soon became some of the most respected professionals. All members of the amateur “Athletic Club of Boulogne Billancourt,” riders like Scot Robert Millar and English cyclists Paul Sherwen and Sean Yates joined forces with other English-speaking stars like Australian Phil Anderson, Irishmen Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche, and American Greg LeMond. They became known in Europe as “La Légion Etrangere,” or the Foreign Legion.

And by the time the Tour de France returned to England in 1994, the relationship between Brits was beginning to take root. But somehow it came up just short of the Cinderella story British cycling enthusiasts hoped for. Although Chris Boardman, the country's golden boy at the time, managed to win the prologue in the north French capital of Lille, he lost the yellow jersey in the ensuing team time trial to the mighty GB team, an Italian-Belgian powerhouse squad. British riders chased after the coveted yellow fleece during the two stages in southern England. But it was only when the race returned to France that Yates, now a veteran, managed to grab yellow, albiet anticlimactically, for a day.

Yet already the enthusiasm in England for the Tour had reached new heights. By the time the race returned in 2007, the reception to the race was no less than royal when London hosted the race as a sort of test run for the 2012 Olympics.

The royal family was on hand to present the Stage 1 leaders' jerseys in Leeds. (James Startt)

“Every time we come to England the crowds are just amazing,” Patrick Lefevere told me before the start of Stage 1 in Leeds. Lefevere managed the GB team back in 1994 when they controlled the yellow jersey through the English stages. He's here this year with his Omega Pharma–Quick-Step team and had hoped that his star rider Mark Cavendish would become the first British rider to win the yellow jersey while the Tour was in England.

But while Lefevere’s own Cinderella story came to an abrupt ending when Cavendish crashed in the final meters of Stage 1, he was sure right about the fans.

Frankly I was underwhelmed by the Tour’s welcome to Leeds in the days leading up to the start this year. Signs and decorations were rare. I saw more advertisements on the city’s double-decker buses for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes than I did for the Tour.

That all changed on July 5, when the outpouring of support surpassed anything I had seen in my 25 years on the Tour. Sure, the crowds were thick in downtown Leeds, but what really impressed me was the sheer unrelenting density of fans throughout the stage.

“I’ve never been to a bike race, but when they announced the Tour was coming to Yorkshire two years ago, I knew I would be here,” said Stephen Watt, who traveled from Scotland. A self-described average but avid cyclist, Watt wore a Cavendish-replica British national championship jersey at the start as he hoped to get a look at his hero. “It completely lived up to my expectations! The excitement is everywhere!”

“This was supposed to be my day off, but I would have been here anyway,” said Police Constable Birdi, a local “bobby” who was called up to work at the start today.

Simply put, everyone appeared, “'Appy as a pig in muck,” as Yorkshire residents like to say. And clearly they more than assured that the start of this year’s Tour will go down in history as one of the greatest in history. Hats off!